The well-known Wankel rotary engine (with Otto cycle) is attributed to Felix Wankel. A shaft is located at the middle of an oblong chamber of the Wankel rotary engine having INTAKE and EXHAUST ports. A triangular rotary piston is caused, via gearing, to rotate a further shaft through INTAKE, COMPRESSION, IGNITION and EXHAUST, an Otto cycle. Two spark plugs are located at the right of the oblong chamber. It may be understood that when the triangular rotary piston is causing contents of a chamber formed proximate the spark plugs to be compressed, ignition will cause combustion and the rotary piston will rotate the output shaft.
It is generally known in the art to provide two-stroke engines. A two-stroke engine may be defined as an engine having a power stroke per a revolution of an associated crankshaft of 360° and with two strokes, or, for example, upward or downward movements (upstroke/downstroke). U.S. Pat. No. 8,127,544 issued Mar. 6, 2012 to Schwiesow et al. (Schwiesow) describes the history of so-called “double acting” two-stroke engines from U.S. Pat. No. 1,785,643 to W. G. Noack el al. issued Dec. 16, 1930, to U.S. Pat. No. 7,258,086 to Fitzgerald issued Aug. 21, 2007. In Schwiesow, the following so-called “double-acting” systems are described: those of U.S. Pat. No. 2,963,008 to Waldrop, U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,528 of Grow, U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,519 to Van Blarigan, U.S. Pat. No. 6,700,229 to Sadarangani et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 7,258,86 to Fitzgerald. As early as Noack et al. '643, circa 1930, FIG. 1 shows pistons 6 and 7, and FIG. 2, shows additional compressor pistons 11 and 12 having a back and forth movement within “free piston engine” 1. Waldrop '008 shows an improvement to a free piston engine including a fuel injection system. Grow '528 adds scavenging via a “fan scavenged two-stroke cycle.”
An alleged improvement introduced by Schwiesow to these earlier “double-acting” two-stroke systems is a homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI) for “essentially constant volume combustion.” Schwiesow depicts an embodiment in each of the '544 patent's FIGS. 8-10 wherein first and second pistons are fixedly attached to each other via a rigid connecting rod so as to oscillate in a cylindrical case from one end to the other of the cylindrical case when cycled sparked ignition of each fuel/air chamber at each end of the cylindrical case occurs.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,170,443 to Hofbauer describes a supercharged opposed piston, opposed cylinder (OPOC) internal combustion engine. A crankshaft rotational axis is shown driven by pushrods and pullrods connected to eccentrics. These comprise many driving arms which make the internal operation appear similar to that of a train locomotive. The OPOC engine of the '443 patent employs a conventional exhaust system. However, U.S. Pat. No. 8,490,380, issued Jul. 23, 2013, also to Hofbauer, describes an improved OPOC system having an incoming air chamber and an exhaust chamber in communication with a combustion chamber with improved scavenging.
Also known is the so-called Bourke internal combustion engine named for its inventor, Russell Bourke. The Bourke engine is described in GB514842, accepted Nov. 20, 1939. Bourke shows in his GB '842 patent, FIGS. 1-4, oppositely disposed cylinders 20 with pistons therein driving connecting rods 19 and a rotatably mounted crank shaft. “The invention consists in driving gear for internal combustion engines having opposed cylinders, pistons and piston rods, a crank shaft and transmission means for converting the reciprocating rods of the pistons into rotary motion of the crank shaft which transmission means comprises a bearing member encircling the crank, pin and means connected to the pistons and engaging against opposite sides of said bearing member characterized in that said means engaging against the bearing member are formed as a pair of separate bearing blocks rigidly mounted on plate like means acting to connect said blocks together.” Bourke suggests that “each of the bearings 3, 6, 10 and 15 are preferably made up of inner and outer circular spaced races between which are a number of steel balls.”
An example of a so-called one-stroke internal combustion engine is Macey, U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2003/0121482, abandoned. A piston block 20 defines a combustion cavity and a compression cavity. A “working assembly 40” is rotatably disposed in the block 20 including a cylindrical portion 46, a compression paddle 50 and a piston 48. There further is depicted an arcuate combustion cavity 28 and an arcuate compression cavity 30. A drive rod 90 operably interconnects the first and second piston blocks 20 for common driving of the components of the drive block 22.
In Japan, Mr. Sadami Wakui prepared was issued JP 59-226231 on Dec. 19, 1984. According to an English language translation of his patent application, he believed himself to be the inventor or two concepts: 1) An internal combustion engine, wherein a plurality of combustion chambers are arranged in series and a piston in each combustion chamber is dynamically connected to one crank and 2) an internal combustion engine, wherein combustion chambers are arranged on both sides of one piston and the combustion chambers of both sides are connected in series via one piston. The first concept is seen in FIG. 1 showing, according to the translation, an “Internal combustion engine wherein two combustion chambers are arranged in series.” The second concept is seen in FIG. 2 which shows “Internal combustion engine wherein combustion chambers are disposed on both sides of a piston.” As the patent develops, FIG. 4 shows the combination of FIGS. 1 and 2 such that two pistons are connected by a rod through two chambers performing four functions: suction, compression, explosion and exhaust, where the rod also is designed to extend from the two chambers and turn an output shaft. The figure shows four spark plugs and four valves in each of the four chambers having the two connected pistons. The Wakui engine may be called a straight-line engine as the rod extends linearly through the four chambers formed by the two pistons separated by a wall in a linear housing; (the Wakui engine is not a rotary engine).
Even with the above-described improvements to two-stroke internal combustion engines, other conventional engines and the Wakui engine, there still remains a need in the art to provide further enhancements and improvements to, for example, fuel efficiency and increased power at the improved fuel efficiency and further improved scavenging by means of further embodiments of rotary and straight-line reciprocating internal combustion engines having a coordinated cycle and one-stroke, for example, a 180° power stroke.